Atlanta Ballet to tour China this fall

Atlanta Ballet, which has not performed internationally in nearly a decade and a half, will begin its 2013-14 season with a two-week tour of China.

The 84-year-old troupe is the only North American company among the 12 invited to participate in the first-time dance festival organized by the National Ballet of China. It will give seven performances Nov. 1-9 in venues around Beijing.

Nineteen of Atlanta Ballet’s 26 professional dancers and seven company staff members will travel. Wei Dongsheng, the China-born dancer who retired from the company in 2004 and now runs Atlanta Professional Dance Academy in Johns Creek, will serve as a guide and translator.

The surprise news was announced Friday night at a “Welcome to the Season” reception for supporters at the company’s Michael C. Carlos Dance Centre.

Atlanta Ballet will join the Russian State Ballet, Korean National Ballet, Shanghai Ballet, Ecole-Atelier Rudra-Bejart of Switzerland and other companies at China’s inaugural “International Ballet Season.”

The China tour will mark the company’s first bow on an international stage since it performed McFall’s “Peter Pan” in London in 1999 as part of the Royal Festival Hall’s millennium celebration.

“It will introduce Atlanta Ballet to a very large audience, and there could be some other opportunities that could grow out of it in Asia,” Atlanta Ballet executive director Arturo Jacobus said. “And there will be impresarios from around the world coming to this because it’s going to be a big festival and it’s the first of its kind in China.”

Atlanta Ballet’s five-year strategic plan, adopted in 2010, made clear the company’s intent to return to national and international stages, calling for the establishing of a special $1 million touring fund. But even before a drive to raise the money has been launched, Atlanta Ballet was approached to participate in the festival and will be paid a fee that should make the tour a better-than-break-even proposition.

Jacobus projects that the company will be in position to undertake an annual national or international tour by the 2015-16 season.

“But we’re flexible,” he said, “and when an opportunity like this comes up, we grab it.”

Jacobus believes that the seed was planted for the invitation when the company’s artistic director, John McFall, traveled to China in summer 2011 to stage “Don Quixote” at the Tianjin Song and Dance Theatre. Atlanta Ballet gave fellowships to three Beijing Dance Academy students last season and hosted a small National Ballet of China contingent in May.

As the sole U.S. participant, the company is billing its performances as "Atlanta Ballet Presents Dance From America." The four works chosen for performance in China include contemporary pieces that have become a growing part of the troupe's identity. The Beijing repertory includes Christopher Wheeldon's "Rush," resident choreographer Helen Pickett's "Prayer of Touch," the pas de deux from George Balanchine's "Stars & Stripes" and the wedding night pas de deux from Stanton Welch's "Madame Butterfly."